Father Particle

March 7, 2014 ·

By Clinton van Inman

Are you there, Father Particle?
Once perennial in purple robes
That golden nimbus, proud first principlePerfect paragon, now the standard modelOnce prime mover from Alpha to Omega
Now a charged particle from Nu to Zeta
Bosons whirling about in massive force
All quite symmetrical in their quantum course.

I looked for you as I poked through your ashes
Smashed to bits by the altar of atomic physics
They said you were no longer in the syllabus
Nowhere in the equations of analytic calculus
Yet I still hold onto your Platonic puzzle
And believe you are there somewhere, Father Particle.

***

Clinton van Inman was born in Walton-on-Thames, England in 1945, graduated from San Diego State University in 1977 with a BA in philosophy, and has been an educator most of his life. Currently he is a high school teacher in the Tampa Bay area where he lives with his wife, Elba.